Hello again! New chapter, yay! I am feeling so much better. I have a new respect for ice cream and cheese cake. Enjoy and please review. I own nothing!
The sky was gray. It was always gray nowadays. Gray with the smog left over from the Great War. Humanity had tried so desperately to win the war, but failed. Leaving him alone to guard the survivors. Sixty five survivors, asleep in their pods, completely oblivious to the struggle he went through each day to keep them safe. Well, each night. The aliens rarely came out during the day, because although the sun was not seen through the smog, its invisible rays still came through.
HOURS_OF_DAYLIGHT_LEFT:_ .5
Only half an hour left. He stood, his joints creaking from staying still so long. He shifted into battle mode, his skin hardening and shaping to create a silver armor with green highlights. His normally black hair turned white, and a green tinted visor slipped out of his hair line to cover his eyes and nose. He walked toward the building he guarded, activating his scanner to search for what he needed. Small red dots flitted around the corners of his visor. They were moving faster than normal today, he would need to hurry.
A blue light appeared on the screen to his left, indicating a power cell. He walked over and dug in the rubble, finding and storing the power cell on his belt. He checked his power supply.
POWER_87%_CAPACITY
Enough for now. He frowned suddenly. Fen rarely frowned, unless in concentration. He had removed his emotions over thirteen years ago, and so he had almost forgotten how to frown. But this situation definitely called for such an expression. The little red dots that were the aliens were going toward one place, and it wasn't the building he was guarding. That in and of itself was strange. As far as he knew, these creatures only purpose was to kill every human on earth. Even stranger, they were heading toward a pulsing green light on his screen. As soon as they reached it, the small red pinpoints would disappear.
UNIDENTIFIED_ENERGY_SOURCE_INVESTIGATION_HIGHLY_SUGGESTED
Fen thought for a moment, considering his options. He could investigate, but that would mean leaving the place he guarded completely open to an attack. No, even if this was some new threat, he couldn't leave.
A cluster of red dots headed for the west side. Fen narrowed his eyes and activated his rockets, putting the strange anomaly in the very left corner of his visor. He could investigate it later, right now it was time for his day to begin.
-Line break-
Robin sat very still, his eyes narrowed. He flashed back to Batman, recalling every detail.
"We have just picked up a strange energy anomaly from the Sahara desert." Batman gestured toward the screen at a pulsing red light. "Analysis suggests that it is a dimensional anomaly. Nothing has come in so far, but we can't be sure nothing will. We want you to find what's causing this and put an end to it. Do not enter the other dimension, as you have no idea what is there." Batman gestured again and the screen changed, revealing the caretakers they had come to know so well. "Red Tornado and Black Canary will be accompanying you as a precaution. They will meet you there. Good luck."
Robin's eyes narrowed even further. As a precaution, yeah right. There probably wasn't an anomaly, and this was just something to keep them busy. Robin curled his hand into a fist. No, Batman wouldn't do something like that. Still, it was hard not to feel like everyone was babying you in a situation like this. Seriously, they had gone on riskier missions before. None of the leaguers were ever whelmed anymore.
He could tell that the others felt the same way. Superboy was making no attempt to hide his anger, snorting and grumbling to himself. Artemis looked ready to kill something, though she was taking it out by pretending to sharpen her arrows. M'gann kept veering the ship accidentally and then apologizing, clearly not focused on what he was doing. Aqualad's face was as straight as ever, but he seemed more somber than normal. Kid flash was probably the most normal of them all, stuffing his face full of a chips and sending googly eyes at M'gann.
"We're landing!" M'gann announced, sounding a bit flustered. "Sorry about the rough ride, heh, lots on my mind." She said it cheerily enough, but you could tell she was nervous.
-Perspective change-
M'gann felt nervous, so incredibly nervous she thought she might pop. If Black Canary and Red Tornado were accompanying them, there was no telling how dangerous it could be. They had never had league members accompany them before, and it scared her.
She snapped back to reality and straightened out the ship. "Sorry!" She said as happily as she could. Goodness, she had no idea that piloting the bio ship depended so much on emotion. Hello Megan, of course it did! Their minds were connected by- oops!
"Sorry!" She blurted again. She felt so embarrassed- embarrassed and nervous! Oh, thank goodness, they were here.
"We're here!" She said, trying to regain her composure. "Sorry about the rough ride, heh, lots on my mind." She gave her brightest smile, trying to show that she really was sorry about the ride.
"I don't see why they had to come." Superboy didn't beat around the bush. He looked out of the semi clear view port, huffing at the sight of the two heroes waiting for them.
"It was smart for them to come." Robin said, his face bearing such a resemblance to Batmans that M'gann did a double take. "There are a lot of unknowns here, and it's good to have heroes with more experience."
Superboy snorted and glared at the wall. "Whatever."
Artemis interrupted, looking a bit like a cat without its favorite toy. "Hate to break up the pouty party, but those two aren't going to wait forever." She headed for the door. Kid flash crinkled up his bag and followed, flashing them a toothy grin as he passed. Superboy made an animalistic sounding growl, and the rest of them followed.
Black Canary saw them first. "Glad you're here because we've got a problem."
M'gann made a small squeaking noise, but no one seemed to notice. Aqualad stepped forward. "What kind of problem, if I may ask?"
Red Tornado stepped forward, his voice leaving no room for misunderstanding. "We have scanned the anomaly, and determined that the source is not on our side. In order to stop this from spreading or letting other dimensional beings in, we need to go through ourselves."
"Easy!" Kid flash said nonchalantly, eliciting an eye roll from Artemis.
Black Canary shook her head. "It's not that simple. We can't just send you in. We have no idea what is on the other side. It could be an alternate timeline, an alien planet- we don't even know if there's oxygen."
Robin jumped into the conversation, his brow furrowed. "Why don't you send in a probe?"
"We sent in several when we first arrived." Black Canary looked at them all in turn. "None of them have sent back signals of any kind."
Red Tornado produced six silver gray suits, all equipped with oxygen masks. "The plan is simple. All of you will go into the rift and find the source of it. I will be accompanying you."
"Wait, what?" Superboy stepped forward, looking at both of the older heroes in turn. "Why is Red Tornado coming?"
Black Canary held up a calming hand. "Part of the plan. If something goes wrong he'll have a faster reaction time."
Superboy gave another huff, clearly unhappy. Kid flash stepped forward. "So where is this "anomaly"?" He folded his arms and made a big show of yawning. Artemis groaned and face palmed.
Black Canary pointed toward a large hill. "Just over that hill."
-Line break-
Fen crouched behind a wrecked car, listening as the aliens searched for him. He converted his arms into blasters and got ready.
An alien charged around the car, its mechanical jaw whirring as it snapped at him. Without flinching, Fen fired two blasts down the monsters throat. The thing squealed, collapsing dead to the ground with smoke pouring out of its mouth. He took no notice, instead sprinting toward the next piece of cover.
An alien leapt out of nowhere, pinning Fen to the ground and trying to skewer him on one of its twelve spear-like legs. Fen converted on of his blasters into a blade and stabbed upward through a chink in its armor. Hot yellow liquid spewed from the wound, hissing as tried to melt Fen's armor. The thing dropped dead, and Fen shoved the body off with a grunt of effort.
DAMMAGE_ ASSESMENT_CRACKED_FRONTAL_LOBE_BROKEN_RIB_COLUMN _MALFUNCTIONING_RIGHT_WRIST
Fen looked at his right arm. The wrist was broken, with pieces of jagged metal and sparking wires sticking out. Oil dripped from the fracture, and he quickly shut down power to that arm, not wanting to catch on fire. A drop of oil slid down his visor, testament to the head wound he had. He quickly scanned the area, trying to determine if he could go on with this type of injury.
Fen narrowed his eyes and rescanned, trying to determine if his system was malfunctioning. All the red dots seemed to be heading to an area just over the next hill. Fen flicked the side of his visor, thinking that it might be glitching. But the screen remained the same. Except-
Fen zoomed out and looked at the entire landscape, and found that the anomaly had moved closer. Just over the next hill as a matter of fact. Eyes narrowing, he switched the nature of his scanner. Dozens of yellow pinpricks appeared in clusters across the landscape. Fen hadn't smiled in thirteen years, but now he did. Never had a chance like this come up before. With every single alien away exploring this new energy, they had left their eggs completely unguarded. Fen wrapped his wrist with a spare cloth and set off toward the nearest cluster.
-Line break-
Kid flash smiled at M'gann. "This isn't what I thought I was doing with my weekend, but I'll take it."
Artemis scowled deeper. "It's Monday, genius!"
"I can dream!"
Red Tornadoes voice interrupted them. "Preparing for entry."
The banter stopped there, and everyone focused on the task at hand. M'gann made another squeaking noise, but no one heard. They all walked toward the rift as one. It was a slash of blue light close to the ground, slowly pulsing. As they got closer, the pull of it drew them closer and closer. Suddenly, M'gann cried out. The pull yanked her off her feet and toward the portal, and the others soon followed, their cries joining hers. There was a flash of light, and then they were gone.
-Dimensional gap-
Kid flash wasn't sure what he was expecting in the other dimension, but he wasn't expecting to come out falling from the sky. He gave a yell, then abruptly stopped as he was pulled to a halt.
M'gann grunted under the strain of holding five people. "Red Tornado! If you wouldn't mind, could you please help?"
Red Tornado quickly conjured a large tornado, and they all landed on the ground. Kid flash got up first, zipping to M'gann to help her up. Superboy sat up with another growl, and Artemis made a pretty good wolverine imitation.
Robin stood and brushed off his cape. "Well. That was unexpected."